Keats, John - Works

John Keats belonged to the second generation of Romantic poets thanks to his feeling for the Middle Ages, his love for the Greek civilization and his concept of writer. He was born in London from a humble family and first of five children,after the early deaths of his father,who was killed in a riding accident and his mother,who died due to tuberculosis, a family illness,he decided to become a surgeon. Later he dedicated to poetry and he was encouraged by the poet and editor, Leigh Hunt,who helped him in the friendship with Percy Bysshe Shelley and in the publication of Endymion,a long mythological poem. In 1820,the symptoms of tuberculosis became evident in fact he coughed up blood. In order to recover his healty,he traveled to Italy,but he died in Rome at the age of 26 years old and he was buried in the Protestant Cemetery in Rome.

Keats was the poet of beauty and senses,because he explored all the senses to express his own feelings. As regards beauty he distinguished between 'physical beauty' and 'spiritual beauty'.The physical beauty is the beauty,which passes on and it is not eternal because it is linked to death while spiritual beauty is immortal and eternal and it is linked to friendship,love,poetry and art. To Keats the best expression of art and beauty is Greek and classical art. He was enchanted and very excited when he saw for the first time a piece of marble of Parthenon in the British Museum.

He is considered as the last of the solipsistic poets because he had the power of sympathy and empathy in order to be one with the object of nature or of his inspiration. He wanted to express and share his happiness and despite the fact he was aware of his illness,he never complained about his life.

To Keats, the poet had what he called 'Negative capability,the ability to deny his certainties and his rationality to identify himself with the object of his inspiration. He obliterated his own ego in a state of sublime awareness without imposing intellectual judgement.